A Chariot Reading Interpretation, Part 1

A Chariot Reading, drawn Mon 25 Feb 2013

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0 Fool - What am I leaping into?

1 Magician - Where is the energy, the magic?

2 High Priestess - What is secret or hidden or unspoken?

3 Empress - Where is my passion?

4 Emperor - What are the rules, possibly hidden or unconscious?

5 Hierophant - What is the path laid out before me?

6 Lovers - How do I express my passion? 

7 Chariot - Where is it all heading?

(from Rachel Pollack's 'Tarot Wisdom')

First of all, in examining this reading I find that my instinct is not to reduce the card meanings to just their positional questions, as written by Pollack. I am seeing the cards in combination, and those combinations go beyond the rather simple questions provided by Pollack. Chances are this is what she intended by the spread, and the questions are just a springboard. But in any case, I feel in no way inclined to formulate an 'answer' to each question in turn based on the single card I have drawn from Thoth. 

The Chariot - A Closer Look

The divinatory meaning of The Chariot is almost always associated with movement, and in a mundane reading you might be told that you're take a trip, moving on from a job, or even getting a new car. Of course this makes perfect sense when you hear the name 'Chariot' and even when you look at some Chariot cards, such as the Druidcraft. But when you study the Rider Waite Smith or Thoth Chariot cards (and many other decks), you realise that the Chariot is not moving at all. Couldn't move if it wanted to.

You can see the Boudica-like figure in the Druidcraft driving the horses on. But the warrior in the RWS Chariot is buried hip-deep in a block of concrete, and his two sphinxes are not moving and in fact are not even attached to the chariot by reins or anything else. The Thoth Chariot looks similar, with the canopy, but instead of sphinxes there are the 'four Kerubic beasts', and they are not attached to the Chariot, either. The charioteer is even less interested in driving, being seated in the lotus position and holding a big serving platter (the handles extend over his wrists).

Now, I don't want to get too bogged down in all this but I am doing a One Deck Wonder with the Thoth, so let's take it from the top:

Where am I headed? | A Chariot Reading

The Chariot is my 2013 Year Card, and I have been drawing it and thinking about it quite a bit lately. I had a look in Rachel Pollack's book 'Tarot Wisdom' yesterday to read what she has to say about the card, and found her spread, 'A Chariot Reading', in which you lay out eight cards to correspond to the first eight cards of the major arcana, Fool - Chariot. 'The purpose of this reading is to help you become more conscious, so that you can take the reins of the chariot that is your life,' she says.

Divination vs Devotion

I've noticed for the last several months that I get out a tarot deck, look through it, put it away and pull out one of my 'real' tarot decks. For months and months it was a Rider Waite Smith. I have collected several over the years: Original Rider Waite-Smith, the yellow boxed Rider Deck, the Giant RWS, the Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative. Then I have those that deviate a bit more: Universal Waite (my first tarot deck--I don't count the debacle with Osho Zen!), Radiant Rider, Diamond Tarot. Beyond that I have all those RWS-based decks: Druidcraft, Morgan Greer...but for the last year or so, I tend to get out an old favourite like Druidcraft, look through it, throw it back in the box and use a 'real' RWS to do the actual reading. Perhaps it's because I have been reading so much Rachel Pollack, and she refers so much to RWS decks. But also, I found myself getting more and more interested in the esoteric and occult symbolism inherent in the RWS, which is often lacking in RWS-based decks, and sometimes purposely removed (such as in the Anna K Tarot).

I've got a crush on you, Thothy-Pie

'All the day and night time, hear me sigh

I never had a notion

 that I could fall with such devotion...

The world will pardon my mush

'Cause I have got a crush, my Thoth-y,

 on you. '